True People of the Reign
26th Sunday in Ordinary Time - 1st October, 2017
Ezek 18:25-28; Phil 2: 1-11; Mt 21: 28-32
Beginning from last week Jesus would narrate to us a series of parables on the Reign of God, calling our attention to the fact of being deserving or not, towards being people of the Reign. Today we have another teaching, the need to choose between the constrasts presented today to be true people of the Reign.
Of what use is it to have been righteous, if we fall from that status in the walk of life. I am painfully reminded of persons in today's scenario who were once upon a time recognised by the whole world as persons of peace and persons dedicated to justice and truth, but today the very same persons joining hands with the evil, either actively or by remaining mysteriously mute. Instead it is better to be sinners but repent from there and reorganise our life in sincerity and grow more and more acceptable to God. This is what Ezekiel presents to us today - it is better to be penitent sinners than to be fallen righteous.
Being leaders does not make us by default important people. Once again, the leaders we witness in today's scenario are sheer counter witness to the world. One threatening the world like a child playing with fire, the other going non-stop with the insinuations making the other more and more indignant -which of these is better? Aren't they both sailing on the same boat of madness, so self conceited that they care nothing about the common good and world peace? We have today the others around us, who get down to the streets and protest this madness, they put their own life at stake for the good of the common crowd, they don't mind losing time, energy, livelihood, comfort and consolation, provided they can make their choice for good crystal clear in life. They are like Christ who was ready to empty himself of everything for the sake of God's will. The choice is ours today, either to be self conceited leaders or to be self emptied servants - we know which one takes us closer to the Reign in Jesus' vision.
At times we run the risk of speaking too much, promising too much, propagating ourselves too much and justifying ourselves too much by our words and arguments. It would not be long before we realise how hypocritical we can get. Just because we are outspoken, we need not be right. The other day, someone sent me a link to a video. There was someone who was not mentioned by name on stage by another during a talk. When this person, who claims to be a VIP comes to speak, points out in public the fact that the other person did not mention his name. Immediately the latter apologises for it but the so-called VIP goes on to insult the person and attach judgements to the simple act of forgetfulness making the person feel so small on stage! What a hypocritical behaviour, while he goes on repeating sentence after sentence that he does not expect to be praised or respected or acknowledged. It was a sheer show of childishness more than being outspoken. There was someone else who had shared a view - she said, being straight forward does not mean being rude! One is saying the truth in such a way that it can be taken the other is saying the truth in such a way that I wish to establish it that only I know it. Preaching, judging, "filial correcting", all these are fine... but to what end? They are like the first son in the parable who shows off that he is so obedient and trustworthy by his empty words! Empty words and arguments won't take us far. What is important is to convert, to repent, to rethink our lives, look from Jesus' eyes, put on the mind of Christ, think as He would, act as He would, decide as He would and choose as He would, to be Silent and to go on doing the will of the Father - a silent servant rather than an outspoken hypocrite!
We are caught between contrasts today. We need to make up our minds, each of us, to which community we would like to belong? To those persons who are on the side of power and domination or to the community of persons who are still struggling to be heard, who are suffocated due to their hunger and thirst for true justice, who are trying to voice their feeble cry towards true peace and well being. If I have to be truly close to the Reign I need to choose between these contrasts: to be a penitent sinner than to be a fallen righteous, to be a self emptying servant than to be a self conceited leader, and to be a silent convert than to be an outspoken hypocrite!
